Chizik was 33-19 overall and 15-17 in SEC play at Auburn. He had only one winning SEC season in four years. The other year was when Auburn won the national title and went 14-0 overall and 8-0 in the conference.

An already-bad season turned worse late in the year. Texas A&M, Georgia and Alabama outscored Auburn 150-21 in the last three SEC games.

Auburn was not competitive against Georgia or Alabama the last two seasons, being outscored a combined 174-21.

Chizik came to Auburn after a two-year tenure at Iowa State where he went 5-19. But Auburn Athletics Director Jay Jacobs knew and liked Chizik from the three years he served as the Tigers'
defensive coordinator from 2002-04.